LEVEL 3, GALLERY 26
AUSTRALIA, BORN 1986
LIVES AND WORKS IN CANBERRA
PROJECT
Designing and making uncommon furniture and objects from ordinary chemicals and materials, Elliot Bastianon’s crystal encrusted works contribute to a display of speculative design projects that look to systems and processes found in nature to communicate ideas of order, disorder and entropy. Comprising new works Cylinder bench seat 2020, Column 2020 and Chair from the Growth Site series 2018, Bastianon submerges his steel and concrete designs in a copper sulphate bath to encourage the propagation of dazzling blue crystals. Taking hold, the crystallization process is directed by the designer with the use of extraneous apparatus and tools. The crystal growth appears to render the furniture and objects dysfunctional, while introducing striking aesthetic features that remind us intellectually of nature’s own inherent and recurrent ability to create, adapt and colonise. The works open the proverbial door to rethinking this intersection between human-centric design and the natural systems of our planet that enable people and societies to exist.
ABOUT
Designer Elliot Bastianon applies a conceptual approach to the production of experimental furniture and objects. Referencing ubiquitous furniture types, he draws on a diverse and unconventional material palette to explore relationships between everyday contexts, science and nature. Exhibiting since 2010 Bastianon has presented his work at Melbourne Design Week (2018 and 2020); Salone del Mobile, Milan (2018); Denfair, Melbourne (2017–18); and Craft ACT (2017).